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^ POEM 



GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND 

READ AT 

Drawyer'S 
Presbyterian Church, 

NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELAWARE, 
JUNE isi, 1902, 



PRINTED FOR THE 
JCIETY OF FRIENDS OF OLn 

From " Every Evening," 




V \- 



?)'3 



^ .dfToP ^X 



MliMORIAL POI^i^'^'" 

AT Tin: 

One Hundred and Ninety- first Celebration 

DRAWYER'S CHURCH, 

JUNE I, 1902. 

BY GKORGH AI^FRED TOWNSEND. 



-ixtv Years alter tlio flcv. George Foofs Historic 
Address. (1; 



Calm, restful scene, along the Drawyer's 

creek 
That points its fdaments to Chesapeake, 
And in old days the carrying ferry thero 
Received the vesseis of the Delaware' 

I seem to see the periaugers woik 

By p(de and sail up to the ancient kirli: 

Towed throug-h the marshes, see the 

Dutchman's barge 
lloU out its barrels and its slaves dis- 
charge, 
To take Lord Herman's forest-blazed way 
To Maryland and the Bohemia. (2) 

1 — Rev. George Foot's sermon, delivered 
when Mr. Townsend was fifteen months 
old, was, with other of Mr. Foot's writ- 
ings, the earliest history of Delaware. 

- — Augustine Herman, Lord of Bohemia 
Manor, Md., blazed a path to the Dela- 
ware in 1671. 







ICre sounds of picachins" from the churcli 

of l<igs 
Haunted the cleaiiugs and the lilied bogs. 
In that raw time when, past the lish- 

hawk's nest. 
This was the postern of the weanling: 

West. 

They seemed right old who worshipi>ed in 

that van. 
And had no altar service from Queen 

Anne! 
Four conquests had already theirs been, 

then— 
The Swede, the Dutch, the English, and 

the Penn! 

Soon will two centuries their funerals 

hold 
Above this graveyard filled with human 

mold: 
How long! how short! — all is comparative. 
The New World is that span in which to 

live. 
Death and Eternity once had their prime; 
Life now is victor,— everlasting' Time! 

Tlie slender bendings of the pure white 

stream, 
Like children's limbs meandering- in their 

dream 
Oer the green coverlets of marsh and 

wood, 
Fill with the morning tide in bounding 

flood. 
The Moon that- over Drawyer's grey 

abides 
Draws the fresh sea through young pube- 
scent tides;- 
Not even old is this old Kirk's sound core. 
Straight in its lines and stately pillared 

door 
As gallant as a widower's sviggest, 
Who looks around and takes new interest. 



'I'lPerstr). 



Come to the old householdci- with your 

plumes. 
AiitJ le;ive him n«>t foicver lo liis tombs. 
Young nymphs! ami ye of more meriOian 

charms, 
^^'ho have been slieltered in liis timber 

arms! 
Hay not ht-'s old. but \v<'aUby and retired, 
And hale euoufcdi to be again admired! 
I'erhaps your footstep on the stepping 

stih- 
Thrills Ihiough his marrow up the solid 

aisle 
And the green (Jilead trees beside the 

gate 
Droi) balm to liim, who is not all sedate, 
lie knows what bright thoughts to your 

mothers came 
^Vhen he w-as young and they were ves- 
tal llame; 
Up to his skirt the green woods creep in 

youth, 
Like Boaz courted by the willowy Ruth. 

There's ivy on the walls that still arc red; 

The robin sips the dew-drops o'er the 
dead; 

The cedars are so dark, the popiars shine. 

And hold the bank the creek would un- 
dermine; 

Like the collection-silver flash the perch; 

The turtle on the tussock sleeps by 
church, — 

What boy did never of a Sunday wnsh 

It was not wicked that day to catch 
fish?— 

Ihe speckled Holsteins graze on clover 
hills; 

The saucy cat-bird morn and evening 
trills; 

Shall we not think in fields "sc fresh, 'se- 
rene 

All of our life is not the clor ng scene? 

But touch the hymnal key, when long ere 
while, 

God looked upon creation with a smile? 



Land of my \x>utlil wlicii pa^l three score 

I am.— 
liiUe to the beaver to his beaver-dam 
I do return, these streams and levels to. 
And what was old. to my old age seems 

new ; 
Because I here Youth's Orient reclaim, 
Like an old picture in its picture frame. 

I see myself a child in fancy big. 
Riding the circuits in my father's gig. 
Past the thorn hedges and the plains of 

peach. 
To sit so long and hear the puli)it pieach. 

But what was Nature also seemed of 

heaven: 
To see the swallows in the church re- 
plevin 
Their nests amidst the naked timber 

work. 
The good psalm singer drop his tuning 

fork. 
The queer old lady with the bonnet deep. 
The wasp that stung us when we were 

asleep. 
The wakening and that, incerest squeal, — 
How hard the knots! it eased us some to 

kneel! 
How, with horse-sense the horses 

neighed for oats! 
Why had the sermon so few anecdotes? 
WTiy did he say so many times "once 

more," 
And argue that, all argued out before? 
Why could those deacons doze, elect and 

well. 
Amidst the furious accounts of Hell?* 
And after, why at dinner, happy, bright, 
The preacher, splendid in his appetite. 
His son respited, though he knew not 

why. 



Wlii'ii after turlu'v c;iiii<> preserves and 
pie, 

And some sweet t?iil tlic dinner did be- 
guile, 

To seek the parlor and to live awiiiie? 

jj.r l)iiyht face flashes <Iowii the void L. 
me. 

Tile l.)eain of Ijeauty's iininoitalit \ '. 

To keep the Law, back in the days of old. 
I had persimmon custard, Sunday, cold; 
liut onl\- once, — I never can forget- — 
I shrink, I whistle, .and I pucker yet. 
Cold apple pie and milk were somewhat 

sad; 
Cold huckleberries plagued the growing 

lad 
But O persimmons; let me i)luck thy 

tree! 
For in the custard tht-y do not agree! 



In Urawyer's Church we gather now, to 

be 
Heirs in its fruitful genealogy. 
Our parents loved; the ashes in the earth 
Were flambeaus for the dear descend- 
ants' birth. 
The human fire, immortal aye recurs 
Rekindled by eternal worshippers. 

Is it for Death we hold this feast of Life, 
Or altar fire of man and love and wife? 
See the old shrine left off its time and 

sphere, 
Aw-akoned to its youth but once a year!— 
How this one day restores its nuptial joys 
As to a mother comes her grown-up 

boys ! 
Sweet spirits verdured in the turf to be! 
We are successors of your ecstacy! 
We the elect of your beloved caress! 
That ye did love, to us is Holiness. 
Love rambled from the heaven in its 

search 



Alul found the maid tliat was the living 

cliurch: 
Raised man and woman unto heaven's 

degree. 
And made the Faith, the Holy Family! 

I^ong- as the j'oung breathe influence from 

the morn 
Earth will be fresh and confidence be 

born ! 
Only the old are pious In despair: 
Eden is endless to the strong and fair! 

How much of piety was that they wed! 
And that the pastor eulogized their dead! 
The mystic union of the man and wife! 
The church as motor of the social life! 
The new-born babe and its short shrift of 

breath ! 
The impotence of prayers, the mocker, 

Death! 
Still the soothsayers round these weird 

flames rove 
And sell their philters or for death or 

love. 
Yet they who lost, oft love a second time 
And o'er the grave full soon the bride- 
flowers climb. 
Awhile we carry wreaths; then less and 

less, 
Visit the mound, till comes forgetfulness. 
This is the thing so magnified before. 
So incidental when the struggle's o'er! 
Then we consider death was for the best. 
Some others are not safe, all ours are 

blest! 
To earth again the choice of heaven was 

uife 
And Joseph's children made a heaven' of 

life. 

Fair is our land where affluent and wide 
The river rises in its magic tide 
And grim Newcastle's solid bulwark laves 
Around the pier, the battery and graves. 



There, while l^ord Oliver had killed a 

King-, 
'J'he Dutch Reformed sal staidly worship- 
ping, 
Till came New TOtmd;in«l on the ships of 

( 'a rr. 
And. as it rose fell Nassau's Hat;- in war. 
Conliseate then was llinoyossas rid^e 
And Sheriff! Cantwell built the Toll Mouse 

Bridge 
And ^)raw^■er■s Ci-eek ((•<)]< nanii', as 1 

opine, (3) 
From one whose ta\-ern drew new ale and 

wine. 
Which might account for many a mi.shap 
Which gave MacDonough's inn the name 

of Trap. 
Whisper it soft! our sailor Dutch were 

fond 
Of liquor, as a bull-frog of Ins pond; 
They brewed Newcastle sleepy as a dunce 
And e'en Port Penn five taverns had at 

once. 

No doubt malaria was in the air 

And spirits worked the other end of 

prayer! 
Tliuse backwoods JNlarylanders,- -not a 

few- 
Came through our province for their 

mountain dew 
And making harbor tow'rd their native 

East. 
They fell like Noah before ark and beast. 
So much more reason for repentance lay! 
As Tarn O Shanter found Kirk Alio way 
The Dutch, the Irish and the Huguenots 
The Puritans, Palatinates and Scots! 
Elders evolved and congi-egations rose 

3 — "Give us leave, drawer!" 

"Put on two leather jerVins and 
aprons and wait upon him at his table as 



drawers." — Shakespeare. 



l*|ioii tlio di'Vil's tnipifc l«» Jofccloso. 
At Pigeon Run the kirkless giavosloiies 

se<^'! 
'I'his old brick Kiik of Ai>poquinimyI 
'J'he Forest Kirk, Pencader's b\' llu- 

Forf^e, 
^Vllitecla^• and the seceders of St. George! 

The Presbyter, he i.s no Pisliop's man: 

]']cclesia.stical Republican. 

lie reasons from his own di\'init\- 

And his Election, what a God .'^houM I^c! 

He sets the earth in older and in lule; 

Ilis inspiration is a liuman seliool; 

"Pis education trims his altar lights 

And stern his courage for his country's 

rights. 
Go read the tombstones where to liol\' 

word 
The heroes of the Kirk awn it the Lord! 
Never in tyrants' battle did they fall. 
And Kirkwood of the Kirk he leads tlu-m 

all. 
The voice of Haslet to his I'egiment 
Had rung in church before he took a tent 
And he whose life-blood nourished 

Princeton's sod 
Had poured the wine and given the bread 

of God. 

Fresh were these bricks in Drawyer's 

second shrine 
AVheh .swept Knyphauseji on to Brandy- 

.wiae 
And brief the time and striking like a 

knell 
Came back the. news thgt Philadelphia 

fell. 

No star so bright can from the heaven 

glide 
As a great city leaning on our side. 
Then with our sun eclipsed, sad could we 

say. 
Our Delaw^are ^as a peninsula. 



The Vailey Forge amidst the hills of sleet 

Shod horses' hoofs but not our soldiers' 
feet, 

['nless the shoes by Newark women 
stitched 

In the deserted school their lads enriched. 

Sad was it, then, to sell the foe our flocks 

And have our soldiers eat their fighting- 
cocks, — 

The same which crowed so cavalierly 
wlien 

They heard the Drawyer's elders crow 
"Amen" 

Foi- saints and chickens to be fed at last: 

All love to pray but few to pray and fast. 

The boundary stones the weird surveyors 

lun, 
Were hardly old before the war was done. 
And like a babe, born neadwards, stood 

the line; 
A fairy ciicle on a slender spine. 
The graceful state a milestone seenit'd to 

be 
To end contentions of a centuiy. 
Since subtle Herman did the line prepare 
Which ruled the Calverts fiom the I^ela- 

ware 
Saved to the Penn his ocean load and 

gate 
And gave the young Republic one more 

state. (4) 

They sent a herald with a trumpet rutlv 
To challenge Philadelphia's latitude; 
"■J'hey might have owned the cil\- had lh«\ 

sent 
To measure latitude an instrument; 



4 — Augustine Herman at Patuxent. Md.. 
drew the distinction that Lord Kalti- 
more'.s. charter was for sa\age lands and 
not those settled i)re\iously l)y the Dulch; 
(In* cause of Deiawaie's bouhdary .split- 
ting the Eastern Shore, 



10 



They had it not and not a i)oint they 

scored. 
The William Penn was mightier than the 

sword. 

Deep boundary, that midst a century's 

storms, 
Divided Labor in its rival forms I 
Then on its border glowed with battle 

lamps 
As if the ghost surveyors broke their 

camps I 

To be our mart young Willing's city 

strove 
Born like Minerva in the head of Jove. 
A Quaker bride beheld the blending kills. 
From the hiffh shelf of Pennsylvania 

hills. 
Where in the offing wide the river gleam.s 
And said: "A spirit put it in my dreams 
To be my home and yours." So beauty 

won. 
The Inner Light still beacons Wilmington. 

And when hard Stuyvesant whipped them 
at the cart 

His sister Bayard pleaded with his honrt 

His Quaker slaves to let go free and 
s))are: 

Her children's children ruled the Dela- 
ware, (5) 

While Stuyvesant forfeiting his people's 
love. 

Against their conquest they no longer 
strove; 

uommarian bigotry had done its work, 

5 — Anne Stuyvesant, married to a Bay- 
ard, was the progenitor of the Delaware 
Bayards. O'Callaghan says that Peter 
Stuyvesant's persecution of the New Yoik 
Quakers reacted to make the English con- 
quest welcome. 



]1 



ir5ine as the Romish heart of James ot' 

Yoik; 
The Quaker scourged, with his pi-oscrin- 

er dealt 
Like the shed blood of John of Barnevelt. 
New Netherlands forgot its ancient name 
And Holland by intolerance lost its fame. 

Long had the church with images been 

wroth. 
The Quaker banished church and image 

both 
Long had man's mind contended for con- 
trol, 
The Quaker's man was woman in the 

soul: 
No oaths, no fashions and no gallant 

words 
The Holy Spirit was the gentle Lord's. 
Swords put aside, Peace wrought its 

pleasant ends 
And our first gentlemen were Quaker 

Friends. 

Penn's welcome brought the Quaker 

beauties back 
From Maryland, Vii-ginia, Accomack, 
The boors rebuked such radiant health to 

see 
Heard the plain speech and turned to 

courtesy. 
Swede, Dutchman learned from inter- 
course reprove: 
Of ardent spirits the best brand is Love I 

See Lady Baltimore in love with Fox 
AVho dined with Lovelace in his curling 

locks 
And Edmund Andross, once the tyrant 

man. 
Happier here than with the PuiitanI 
Penn landing at Newcastle locked the foi-t 
And locked out wai-, tVie eonquerur'.s re- 
sort; 



1-2 



With Quakers settled PhiladelpViia's 
heights 

And at the capes the peaceful Mennon- 
ites ; 

Baptists like them but men of warrior- 
wills. 

He put his Welch on the disputed hills. 

To fend the Talbot's kern from Naaman's 
creek 

And guard the back-door from the Chesa- 
peake. 

Those still, drab Quakers must perforce 
prevail; 

They had been Ironsides and charged in 
mail; 

They put off armor to prevail again. 

A Roundhead's daughter was the Lady 
Penn. 

His father's fleet against the Spanish 
swam. 

His mother was of Dutch from Rotter- 
dam. 

So had his coming nothing to provoke 

For he was cousin to the Holland folk. 

The name of William Penn by time di- 
lates. 
Founder of two, naj' three potential 

states; (6) 
His large brain melted in their disson- 
ance. 
His old age softened to a childish trance. 
This day let prejudice forget to work, 
And make us kindly to the Duke of York! 
Him whom to Penn his territories sold 
And took our counties in his great free- 
hold! 
The persecuted have the kin of teais, 
Quaker and Catholic were soi-row's peers. 
Conscience is obstinate till Love is free, 



6 — Penn's hf>.nd was influential to create 
Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



i::i 



Misfortune leaves pathetic victory. 

The banished King, — whose daughters, as 
severe. 

As were the off-spring- of the fierce King- 
Lear, 

Their husbands joined and pushed him 
from his realm, — 

Left Penn, Cordelia, at our shallop's 
helm; 

But eighteen years beneath his princely 
care 

James, Duke of York, was I^oid of Dela- 
ware. 

Bishops and Kings are of the self same 

trade 
And yet how easily they can be made! 
Asbury, Coke, from roaming Presbyters, 
Ordained themselves while gaped the 

worshippers, 
They came afoot and went away ahorse — 
Bishops we make quicker than Senators! 
'J'he grain that Whitfield thrashed they 

gathered in 
And starved the ritual Bishops from the 

bin; 
These hunted foxes far. those chickens 

neai', 
And perfect love is said to cast out fear. 
Camps and revivals killed the harvest 

home 
And made our Barratt's Chapel Peter's 

Rome. 
Ye Methodists! however far ye go, 
Ye must come here to kiss St. Peter's toe! 

(7) 
How many ye have grown we do not 

caie 
We did set up your See in Delaware. 

The Kirk was strong when on her pilion 
slow 



7— The Methodist Episcopal Church be- 
gan at Barratt's Chapel, Delaware. 



u 



The elect lady rode behind her beau. 

And when tlie sermon touched the sub- 
jects new 

Of Derry's seige and Saint Bartholemew; 

Could woman then the (ater problem 
span 

That Eve w^as ape and Adam not a man? 

No wonder she some fresher themes be- 
spoke! 

Doctrine was long and dying was no joke. 

Still might she start, to hear the pastor 
say, 

"The fashions of this world they pass 
away," — 

Thankful the while her Easter hat over- 
spread, 

One merc5'' yet was left above her head! 

Scowl not that speech and spirit are so 
free! 

This is a Sunday but a jubilee. 

If one had died for all to burst the grave 
Ijife is no "quarry dungeon of the slave," 
To all condemned, the proclamation give. 
Gloom's gates are broke that faith and 
joy may live! 

Many regret the fear of death is faint, 
And most of all the Life Insurance Saint, 
Whose taxes early from our fears begin 
Takes but the long-lived and they die to 
win. 

So well has Science measvn-ed Time's 
abyss 

Time seems a chain of small eternities. 

Words have no terrors when the mind is 
free 

And space, harmonious with geometry. 

Taint. impuissance, they can never 
thrive : 

The sound, the hale, the fit, alone sur- 
vive ; 

If we appeal from natural selection 

'Tis not as hard as foreordained election. 



ir. 



still stein and just is Life whose laws wo 

fear 
And more than Hell's, we still have judg- 
ment here. 

Some day our minds from idols shall dis- 
perse 
And grasp the safety of the Universe, 
Not held in tyrant wilfulness and spite, 
But balanced into orbits exquisite; 
Spheres rounded like the pebble to the 

stream 
That gives propulsion with its s>ivan 

gleam 
And know^s not why it trickles to the sea 
Except that everything is energs^ 

Women so take away the male employ 
Girl seems to us only a smarter boy. 
Churches to town must move, for modern 

style 
Will not to Drawyer's walk a half a mile! 
Sermons on earthquakes do no more 

deter 
Than former fires that burnt some thea- 
tre. 
A science primer studied by the cook 
Giandmothor convert to a Darwin book. 
The small boy ciphering on arcs and volts 
Insurers stolid about thunderbolts, — 
'Tis getting hard new judgments to in- 
vent 
Or step a man in business "to renent." 

Time is so occupied none love the slow 
And life is comfortable as a show. 
Mourn as I may about that dear old Past, 
I hope the Undertaker nailed it fast! 
'I'he butterfly enjoys his gaudy ])liss. 
'i'he caterpillor loves his chrysalis; 
Wlio with events keeps energetic tryst 
A'alues not life that's merely to exist. 
Nor tells the dreams that nawl about his 

rest, — 
The soundest sleeper ia the healthiest. 



IC 



Death is a bore we will not halt until 
He comes to business and we pay his bill. 
Why shall we cring^e to him more than 

the brave 
Who storm the ramparts to a glorious 

grave ? 
Life is such battle that whom can go 

through 
Is also hero, to his colors true! 
The fear of death, gone with the death of 

fear. 
I^eaves life artistic and the soul sincere, 
Not like those fancies in my youth I saw 
Of people dressed in white with smirks of 

awe, 
AVaiting to rise to heaven in our sight. 
Predicted that day by some Milleritc; 
And ostentatious piety makes pain 
Ijike calling history "sacred and profane." 
Sheep need not labels to be told from 

goats 
And natuies turn not when men tuin 

their coats. 
^Ji'cat pa.gans blessed the world with wis- 
dom's ken 
lOre in a Temple cried a Jew "Amen." 

The sacred are the mighty sages gone 
Whose light led in the fiuctuating dawn, 

Sdiiic sncerdota! and some st-cular. — 
r.iil iKiiuiaiu-c has not a single Star. 

One likes to preach whom preachingoften 

tired. 
And ill the pulpit feels a. bit inspired. 

Yon island diowned in la\-a, ne\er starts 
Tii<- thoiigiii of Judgment bul in l:i\a 

It sjicaks the less(m of material might. 

Tile suns (•oml)Ustion for our i>ower and 
ligbt, 

The ei.-iters th;it ai-e s].ots ni)on its face. 

'l~b.- vviiiiling world that nnx ks the en- 
gine's i>ace, 



17 



Yet is not fast as Thought, that can for- 

see 
'■J'he comet's voyage back with certainty! 

Pliny, when Paul was preaching, learning 

drew 
To climb Vesuvius for a nearer view. 
Science was his religion and his guide. 
He breathed the vapors and the hero died. 

The young- Duponts acquired their chem- 

i.st skill 
With great Lavoisier in his powder mill — 
Him who took air apart with balance 

keen 
And lost his wise head on the guillotine. 

Why shall we over all occasions cant. 
And find a moral like an elephant? 
Idlest be the preacher Priestly by whose 

care. 
Rose soda fountains in a brewer's i)eer! 
J'.lcst among doctors ))e that woililiiig"s 

ken 
VVlio did l)ring forth the baby Oxygen! 
Clory to all, who when our fight is fought, 
Liiive for tht-m, after us, a nol)lei- 

thought! 

Wheie is our peach, exquisite to th(^ eye? 
(lone to a soil wheie it can live, not die. 
Within the seed may tree and fiiiii be 

found 
Wo bui-ii the b.arren orch;ii-d to the 

ground. 

Seven hundred years all of our modern 

l)ioo<ls. 
Wore W(.lves and l)oais out of the (lei-- 

man woods; 
A thousand moro rcvt-nging- of tho Lord, 
Tbi-y haiiied k'sscr wolves with fhc and 

sword. 
Wfic cvci-y deed cleinally fort'som 
Whv not Columbus in his bold maiin.-?— 



IS 



Why not the lialf -world that he was to 

roam 
When orphan Judah wailed to liaxe a 

home? 
But having claimed it with the crucilix 
They hanged each other up as heretics. 

Who can find God on this a]:»oi-tive plan. — ■ 
Man as a God and God another man? 
Just civilized above the crawling clod. 
Why is he so precocious to see God? — • 
The footstool leave and to the throne re- 
pair? 
When instinct tells him God is every- 
where? 

'Tis the material universe which pulls 
The faith far out from signs and miracles. 
Phlogiston, spirits, anima, have been; 
The ghost of Ether walks to stars unseen. 
Electric pulses visit streets and rooms. 
And ghosts are everywhere, excei^t in 

tombs : 
All honest ghosts, good stewards, without 

stilt. 
Who came abroad from neither good nor 

guilt: 
The spirits of the ring and lamp who hie 
Through caverns served by mighty genii. 

Till ck'T'ioal imagination sees. 
Beyond the crone"s or cnild's credulities, 
This Matter, without end or substitute. 
Whose revelations nothing can dispute, 
Which has its laws no mote can di-sobey. 
Cannot remove and must forever stay, — 
Its hold upon the living will )io less. 
Wild stand in Nature's ni>)>lo diocoss. . 

The world explo<led, still an orb will be. 
lirought to its foim by cential gra\'ily! 
AVhy do all bodies in attraction nnnc? 
Is that material motor also love? 
Man's bieaking laws unto our thuutvht ai)- 
pears 



19 



Part of tlic aberration of the spheres. 

Dogma has slain more tlian the pest's ef- 
feet: 

The dire voleano in its intelleet. 

This text of Solomon shall bend thy knee: 

"Through Knowledge shall the just de- 
livered be!" 

The source of all ideas is the Mind; 
The weakest heads most obstinate we 
tind. 

Good sense did man nor woman ever 

smirch; 
It beats all fashions of the state or 

church! 
The slavish queens in their confessors' 

chains. 
The fires of Inquisition in their veins, 
Aye had aversion to reality, 
And left to scorn a demon pedigree. 
In love of children is devotion shown! — 
We love the ang-els when we love our 

own! 

Unto Nodines and Vandegrifts, — whose 
dust 

Rises through dews, like memories of the 
just. — 

Whom he ejected from their land of 
Fiance 

And broke the edict of their Tolerance. 

To emigrate these forest slews upon! — 

Louis was less the wretch than Main- 
tenon! 

Cold hearted piety was in her trade! 

To her own parents" creed, the renegade; 

Propriety, conformity, her blots; 

How hate the Jezebel our Huguenots! 

Though all men die, 'tis seldom learning 
liies. 

And from theii- graves walk lost discover- 
ies. 



'20 



Thus, dowered by nations which liave 

died before — 
The Greek, Egyptian, Mongol and the 

Moor — 
Learning has set its bow on raindrops 

small. 
From each refracted to the arch of all. 

Philosophy the growling- heavens to feel 

Brought down the Jove behind the thvni- 
der peal, 

Taught him to read, to message and to 
write. 

And in slow time to manufacture Light. 

He signals from the shore to ships un- 
seen, 

He grinds like Samson in tlie vast ma- 
chine, 

So practical, exhaustless, recondite, 

W^isdom seems energy, and Mind said 
"Light.' 

Waves like a river to the stars traverse; 

Of like constituents the universe; 

So small our knowledge that it seems a. 
mite 

And Man's probation almost infinite. 

Each world, its note haimonious as a 

flute. 
Nothing but Ignorance Is absolute: 
Its (lictmn must the fii-m:iment tiansci'iid, 
And find its comfort in "All this must 

end! " 

One half the glol)e was to the priests un- 
known 

Who legislate<l for the half alone 

And Mother Earth, twin-breasted, is 'so 
young 

Her tirst sweet lullai)y is h.udly sung; 

Health, ti'uth, blown on liim fiom the 
Westein bieeze, 

Hei- boy shall grow and 1k' a 1 Icrciibs. 

StJanglc tlu^ seri)t-nt and the kmU uiilie. 

That coils o'er intellect and destiny. 



21 



Scaiee died the echoes clankrd from slav- 
ery's chain 

Ere fell the thousand years of bloody 
Spain. 

The avarice of England staggeis poor 

Before the ancient spirit of the Boer. 

Asia from trance awakens and from form: 

Trodden too hard will turn at last the 
worm. 

It is the Mind, delivered from the thonff. 

Rising- to sunlight like the skylark's song-. 

Which speaks melodious to the brooding- 
soul: 

"No man another's thinking- shall con- 
trol. 

Young: feet are in the footprints of the 

dead ; 
Old lore is sprouting in the offspring's 

head; 
Cupids are pushing- on the golden ball; 
The gain of one is heritage of all! 

By cultivation Eden is refound. 

Mind needs rotation as we seed the 

ground. 
Pumpkins and beans alone the Indian eat. 
He died because he never planted wheat. 
Hotate the thoughts! Ideas old reverse! 
Which follow us like the primeval curse! 

Nothing- but liearning- this can comiire- 

heiid: 
Man is continuous though mortals end; 
lie i)asses like the sunbeam through the 

in ism 
And in crrulgciicc loses egotism. 

O better is the church that loves the 

world. 
When Satan's standards aie foi-ever 

fui-led! 
And ))etter arc^ (lie l.eople and the s(:il.', 
When llie.\ who teiioiized di> educalel 



No longer ki(lnai)p.ed l)y our whiK' pol- 
troons. 

Are freeborn men sold to the barracoons. 

No longer I'rinceton's rolls do Belials 
blur, 

Faithless to everything like Aaron Burr. 

The creed is changing out of despotism 

And human kindness cools the blistering 
chrism. 

Perpetual morals rather sour than bless: 
There is a Bible in our consciousness! 
One only sin the Puritan could see. 
The sin tliat he had bad, of gallantry; 
His Sunday Blue Laws beat the drum and 

fife 
Ai^ound the rake who that day kissed his 

wife. 
If that loud warning still to sin adheres 
We would have Sundays, music of the 

spheres. 

"When on the Sabbath the Disciples took 
Some roasting corn contrary to the Book, 
The Pharisee, if we have sti-ictly read, 
Went in the Temple and stood on his 
head. 

The sects, like chanticleers, have cut 

their comb; 
As Drawyer's is deserted, so is Rome! 
Yet is the world gentle to men of gowns, 
Like the republics lenient to crowns; 
^^'e make concessions for the good intent. 
And to the Friars are benevolent. 
To the old trees awhile we spare the axe, 
'J'hough in their top boughs, Physics 

thunders tacts. 

Right is the course twixt dogma's stiff 

extremes 
As l>y opi^osing tides we sail the streams. 
Tiara. l>ioa<llnim, they are out of date, 
I'ope, J\in.g and l']Uh:-r, love our happy 

state, — 



23 



Thrill as its flag the Western zephyrs fan. 
And stand together on the Riglits of Man. 

The Jesuits, once feared, now make no 
din. 

The common schools have stuffed that old 
coonskin. 

The public schools have ushered out the 
monk. 

Whose last Armada graduated junk. 

And out with them, forgetting, we for- 
give. 

Goes also "Calvin, the Accusative." 

Choked is the fame of Calvin to inspire. 
Since for a fellow saint he lit the fire! 
No worldly judge would ever be so stein 
And light a lire eternally to burn! 
Who can desire those dismal doctiinos 

back 
Need say no more al)Out the l'.':pal rack. 
Both are abhorrent to a people free 
Linked in the faith of mutual liberty! 

The General Assembly, full of praise. 
Has sold out Tophet just eleven days; 
Horns, hoofs and l»rimstone, quit the 

saints' corral; 
Devils on earth were only doctrinal. 

They found, they loosed and made the 
future rosy. 

But could not do it but by viva voce; 

Consistency was saved in the correction — 

Infants and all are spared, — but by elec- 
tion. 

When Berkeley said there was not matter 

any, 
No matter real was in old Gehenna, 
Though in the heads of some will still be 

Sheol, 
Who do incorporate it their ideal; 
Such, may we hope, in their next Sala- 

magundi, 



24 



Will not make off with other peoples' 
Sunday! 

For holy days were holidaj's' beginning. 

And week-day smiles cannot be Sunday 
sinning. 

Respite from work, from debt, from dirt, 
for one day, 

Is holiness enough for human Sunday. 

Sabbath was made for man — and contri- 
butions. 

And man guessed out most other institu- 
tions; 

The first was life; next love, and last was 
Knowledge, 

And those degrees are old as Eden's col- 
lege. 

Tile nosthorn breaks the seals, the dread- 
ful trumii, 

And all the laggard creeds make haste to 
hump. 

These modern times dispense with inter- 
cessors, 

Willi doctors, writers, iirophots and ]>r(i- 
f essors ; 

'J'here comes a voice of diocesian reach: 

"Stop all the trains! — Kirkpatrick wnnts 
lo preach!" 

Anotlier voice, more feminine, piwails: 

"Yes, stop the cars, but let us have the 
males." 

The churches must from trance and 
sloth rise un. 

And from the woild take the ooinmnnii>n 
cup. 

Not bank their fires on every day but one, 

And brand the tavern where our Christ 
begu n ! 

Open two doors, instead of closing nil! 

Give fiuits for wealth ecclesiastical! 

Kxample. more than admoniUon. cries: 

'Start hands ti> skill and hearts to sym- 
pathies." 



iVlny nut. tlics.> kirks. witli household 
(•(hies linked. 

'r);iiii us un servants Mho are near ex- 
tinct? 

Be manual schools the artist to niatinc 

Or raise the hope of totterin,c: literature? 

No tiine nor class a statesman need.s to 
search 

More than religion, with its g-arnished 
chui'ch. 

Forms, names, assumidions to the sca1(j 

aie twiii'd. 
And weighed upon tlie steel >aid of tht^ 

world. 
A .gentle spirit, warmed to ])ubnc love, 
Is the descending of the mystic dove. 

Nor yet concede when j^riestliness alone 
Claims every mighty agent for its own! 
. he public schools, the factories, the arts, 
The v'l'iiiting types, the banks, the checks, 

the marts. 
Credit and faith and freedom were and 

are 
Born of a spirit mundane, secular. 

A century had Calvin been interr'd 

Before Westminster's creed our fathers 
heard ; 

They saw it born, we saw its hearse go 
hence. 

And the birds sing and know no differ- 
ence. 

Let sermons like the birds take song- and 
singri 

The world can alter by hearts softening. 

T.h.G head, also, must shed its- dreams "of 
dread, 

For the whole' universe is- in our head,— 

Each blood-drop tear-drop, spherically 
pure, — 

And head and mind are worlds in minia- 
ture. 



26 



The jr>ints, the eyes, ino\ c like the woilds 

in space, 
On curvatures they run their tranduil 

race; 
Shadows obscure but lij^ht disperses 

fright; 
We liope that God is Ivove; we l^now He's 

T.isHt. 
l>iglit has so many eyes from far afnr, 
All tender influences seem a star. 
And out of hollow hea\'en rhyme mi 

rhyme. 
Infinite lights a paeon sing to Time, 
Blessing the orbed systems which on 

arcs 
Wheel in their orbits like the wheeling 

larks. 
Strike not each other, but each other 

bend. 
And fly in circles that disclose no end; 
Yet each, perhaps, its species oft sup- 
plants. 
Quickened to life bj^ dead inhabitants; 
The golden-tinted cloud that dies in 

storms 
Rose from the exhalatjon of the worms. 
Rise, man! from fears of omen and of 

fate 
Time's life to lengthen and appreciate! 
Revere yon tombs, wherein the dust is 

spent 
Of them who left us heir and resident! 
Repeat the life that gave us life's be- 
quest. 
And trust to God and Nature for the rest. 

Manhattan's child v/ithin our slender 
state, ^ 

The self-same pulses beat which made 
hep great; 

With Pennsylvania our motions run 

Harmonious as the trigger in the gun. 

Our boundary floats to Jersey's highest 
tide; 

The sap of Maryland is in our side. 



21 



SniHll as WL' scoin. our liistor.N tnaturcs 
In patlis as long as EuroiR-s litcratuixs. 

Seven thousand sermons in old Drawyer's 

spun 
Leave on the memorv a single one 
When Parson Foot, now sixt>- years gone 

by, 
Turned from the clouds to local history. 
He hrought the annals to our darkened 

sight 
And gave to them a personal delight. 
The wakened congregation heard him 

speak, 
JJke Homer singing legends to the Greek; 
Faded away the prophets like the elves; 
The people heard the story of themselves. 
Like stocks made human by the pipe of 

Pan 
Came music strains of former man to 

man> 
Still down the three-score years this Kirk 

is blest, 
Inliabited by history's interest; 
And to the silent marshes where the 

crane 
And ospreys hermit, worshippers again, 
Migrate to be within the haunted mark 
Where Letters found a youthful patri- 
arch ! 

Oft ha^•e I seen him, in my tender age, 
At Newark, from the rival i^arsonage, 
Come down the steps with something in 

his look, — 
I know it now: the spirit of a book. 

It made him lofty where the rest seemed 

low. 
They knew so little that he loved to know. 
That he did grope our broken records 

through 
Invites me here to pay his shade its due, 
And join you in this annual jubilee. 
With echoes of liis sober poetry! 



28 



Kind clergymen! whoso windmill aitns 
are furled 

P.y stefimmiils and the i^-cnii of (lie world! 

Draw from (he clouds! C'ondense the hu- 
man mists: 

To >our own chureh.\ards hi; evangelists! 

r;i\>" us that tah; in every family fresli 

\\'h<re Salan and Divinity in flesh 

On our three Counties left a weird de- 
aeent 

An old Leviticus, a Testament! 

Trace down the rivers to the under zone 

The Delawareans from the burial stone. — 

]01k folks, and Chester, Sassafras invoke! 

The Choptank and the winding Nanti- 
coke! 

The Cypress swamp that feeds the Po- 
komoke! 

Each to a wider world ran off its springs 
And from their Exodus descended Kings. 
Of all these preachings the perennial fruit 
Is Danker, Sluyter, Lednum, Parson 

Foot. (8) 
Draw out our spin wheel to a weaver's 

heam ! 
Relate our state to the Imperial theme! 
Our lyric to the epic poem span 
And be our limits wide American! 

The Jews are rich, the patriarchs are 

blest! 
Come to the dawn of modern interest! 
Push on like Moses in inspired spell 
And write account of your own funeral! 

In Dover did a dying Preacher grieve; 
His heart was in the world he was. to 

leave; ^ 

He l«ft a son and no provision left 



8 — Annalists of Delaware -vvere Dank- 
ers and Sluyter, and Reverends Lednum 
and Foot. 



29 



But heavens f(ir the orphan bny bereft. 
"What is it, brotlicr, plagues thy labors 

done?" 
A politician said; the prifst: "My son!" 
"Leave him to me! That suiruw Ije thy 

least." 
And statesmen weie deseended from tlie 

priest. 
Their educati(>n lipened golden alms. 
The music of the deed excelled tlie 

))siilms. 
O! bread upon the waters is like rain, 
That falls u])on the suffocated grain; 
The gospel is but mercy; help but prayer 
That on the place beneath falls every- 
where. 

Small is the Avorld amidst the worlds re- 
plete 

As was the apple that the woman eat, 

But knowledge, boundless, juiceful in the 
bite, 

Still flavors life with lifeful appetite. 

Far in the West our children's children 
rise. 

Like to the brood expelled from Paradise, 

But tow'rd the East their intuitions 
burn. 

And to the East the wave will yet return! 

Still do the wild fowl from the Arctic 
steer. 

To pasture in the salt depths year by 
year. 

Still do the shellfish fatten in the sounds, 

The foxes double on the yelping hounds. 

The ancient wheatfieldb. \-ield their flour, 
still, 

The broad ponds turn the old Color.ial 
mill. 

The ploughmen whistle to the same blue 
jay, 

And in tho stacks the Blue Hen's chick- 
ens play. 



30 



In tJie canal the inuskrat.s rnick abiclp 

'Neath the broad feeder wheie the ves- 
sels ride; 

The railway souii<l.\- to exei-y "Jlundied" 
mails. 

The lork l.r.akw;it. T snelters tl'-els of 
sails. 

The shii»wiig]ils rivtt winre Ih'- WHr^Uiijtj; 
lean 

I'pon the ways above (lie sp;ire Chrisfin*^; 

(^)ur matehes to the farthest nations sent, 

Our powder shakes the mountain conti- 
nent. 

The cannon of our forts on foeman bear. 

And guard the cliannel of the Delaware. 

Part of the nation, in its fame we w'n, 
In the near Indies or the far Pekin, 
Fresh as the Lotus lilies in our seas. 
We scent the future with our destinies. 

United States from Holland took address 
Which had been styled United Provinces. 
To Congress the States-General led the 

way 
Before Columbus and America. 
How like to Holland are our river views I 
Our dikes of cattle and our reedy slews! 
But joining earliest a nation's thought 
We are the empire that the Dutchman 

sought. 
And they by Orange princes cramped to 

dearth. 
Are unto us an orange to an earth. 

Our yjoy. MacDonough, England did con- 
front ; 
In iron rain, to prayers, beat great Du- 

pont; ^ . 

Our step-son, Wilson, on the Yellow Sea, 
Shakes out our flag to easy victory, — 
The flag that knows no difference in its 

stai-s. 
And holds no slave behind its blood- 
scoured bars. 



Love thou thy iii-ighbor than thyself no 

less. 
Is sum and substance of religiousness. 

Those saints who to the churchyard add 
their grime 

Moved tow'rd tlie light in their imperfect 
time; 

They had departed from a former date. 

They would not tithe nor transsubstanti- 
ate. 

Resistance was their progress, God's de- 
cree. 

A step toward the civil liberty. 

Strike reveille, as to the muster drum! 
Christ, never dead, is in His childhood 

come! 
Sound trump to them who moulder on 

their swords! 
"The Earth and all its fulness, are the 

Lord's!" 




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